


Love in a Hopeless Place

by betheflame



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Creature Fic, M/M, Merman Bucky, The Author Regrets Nothing, Warlock Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:22:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29132505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame
Summary: Bucky was a long, long way from home when he got trapped in a security ward. Could it possibly be the home of the Resistance he'd been seeking all this time?
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Comments: 29
Kudos: 118





	Love in a Hopeless Place

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a conversation with a.greenleaf, who gave me the mental image of Bucky as a merman in a bathtub that lived rent free in my head for far too long. 
> 
> And now it can live in yours. 
> 
> Thanks to heather for the beta, to greenie, summer, rise, and everyone else on the STB server who held my hand through this one, and any one reading this for taking a chance on my attempts to write a longer creature fic.

“Tony.”

Tony blanched. The tone that Steve was using was his ‘Tony Has Killed My Last Nerve’ tone, which never went well for any of them.

“Steve, calm down,” Peggy said. “While I am as confused as you are how we got ourselves to this place, using your Captain Tone with Tony will get us nowhere.”

“Thank you, Pegs,” Tony said.

“Oh, no,” Peggy said as she spun towards him, “this is the most asinine thing you’ve done since last week, so do not think you are getting off the hook. We just simply do not have time for the two of you to go nine rounds on who makes decisions right now, so I’m making them. Start from the beginning, Tony.”

Tony sighed, and hit ‘rewind’ on the security footage. He stopped at 3:18am, and then began his narration.

“It appears that the wards I put in place to keep out Rumlow’s coven have, in fact, trapped a mercreature.”

“But mercreatures -”

“Steven, I swear to God, please just let me finish,” Tony snapped. His nerves were frayed - he knew exactly what was at stake here, and exactly how fast they had to move. His magic was too depleted to work on his own, however, for any long term solution and Pepper and Rhodey were both in California for three more days.

Steve set his jaw, but was quiet.

“Even though this mer is 900miles away from the sanctioned and confirmed nesting grounds for mers, he is here, and JARVIS tells me that he’s real. This isn’t a mirage, or a trick, or something one of our enemies snuck past the wards,” Tony said with a sigh. “It’s just someone far from home, who is now trapped in our war.”

“JARVIS,” Peggy called, “how much longer do you anticipate before his gills dry?”

“The creature’s lubrication forces have approximately forty-seven more minutes before the scales will crack,” JARVIS intoned. “I have suggested to sir that we transport the creature from the ward holdings to a more wet environment.”

“A more-” Steve started.

“The bathtub, Steve,” Tony said with a sigh. “JARVIS wants me to put him in the bathtub.”

“But that tub can barely fit me!” Steve said. “With his tail -”

“Darling, the tub is what we have,” Peggy said firmly. “Now please, can you and your impressive shoulders please go retrieve the creature? I will liaise with our guest and JARVIS to get appropriate dietary coverage.”

“We can’t hide him forever,” Tony said softly.

“No, but we can make sure he doesn’t die,” Peggy replied.

* * *

Bucky had no idea where he was.

A British voice had told him that he was safe, and that he would be attended to swiftly, but until that happened? He was trapped in a wading pool that barely covered his tail. He’d used all his power to get away from the hunters - he knew that his tail drying completely was an increasing possibility.

“Honestly, this is what I deserve, thinking I could get away from Pierce,” Bucky muttered to himself. “Thinking I could -”

“Sir?” The British voice was back.

“Um, yes?”

“Captain Rogers of the 7th Fleet Guard is approaching. He is here to transport you to a more amenable habitat.”

“The 7th Fleet Guard,” Bucky replied with a screech. “How the living fuck did I swim to SHIELD Territory?”

“You are not a SHIELD inhabitant, then?”

“No, Mister Voice in the Air, I am not. I am HYDRA and -”

“You have no weapons upon your person,” the voice interrupted, "and we have no reason to believe you pose any immediate threat. You were thoroughly scanned before being allowed to remain with us.”

Bucky pressed his hand to the back of his neck, trying to imitate his mother’s calming presence as he rubbed it in thought. “Listen, I ain’t HYDRA like I believe in what they’re doing or anything. I just live in the territory - my whole clan does, we ain’t got no choice. They’re terrible, and I’ve been trying to defect for ages, but SHIELD said they wouldn’t have me -”

“Who said that?”

An exceptionally American voice echoed through the chamber and Bucky turned his gaze to the source.

“Wow, so the rumors are true,” Bucky muttered. Captain Rogers of the 7th Fleet Guard was so famous among Bucky’s kind that there were entire plays written about him. Disguised, of course, so their overlords wouldn’t know they were seditious. Meeting Captain Rogers had been a dream of Bucky’s for a long time, but one that he knew would never come true. Just like he knew that Grand Warlock Stark was never going to come and destroy the runes that kept his people captive.

“Who told you you couldn’t defect?” Captain Rogers repeated.

To have Captain Rogers in front of him was a bit of a mindfuck, so it took him a beat to find his words.

“A shark shifter named Rumlow I met two years ago,” Bucky replied.

“Rumlow is no longer associated with SHIELD.” As Captain Rogers spoke the name, something flashed in his eyes and Bucky knew that was a shallow statement for a heavy reality.

“Well,” Bucky said slowly, “then can I defect?”

Captain Rogers paused for a minute and then barked out a laugh. “Of all the… Tony’s gonna… Yes, of course. JARVIS, please mark for the record that I accept -” He gestured to Bucky to provide a name and identification.

“James Buchanan Barnes of the Brooklynaire MerClan.”

“- complete guardianship and welcome with the lands of the 7th Fleet Guard and our allies.”

Bucky wasn’t sure if he expected trumpet music or something, but it did feel anticlimactic.

“Now,” Captain Rogers continued, “we don’t have any other mers among us, so we don’t have a body of water big enough for you at the moment. I know Tony and Bruce and Sam will rig something quickly, but for now, all we have is Tony’s bathtub. And I’ve been sent to transport you there.”

“How?” Bucky gestured to his tail and the rest of his being.

The Captain grinned. “I can lift human cars, pal, so don’t worry.”

“I ain’t getting bridal carried by Captain Rogers,” Bucky said incredulously. “You gotta be kidding me.”

“I can throw you over my shoulder if you’d rather,” the Captain replied as he entered the small pool. “And it’s Steve, by the way.”

“Yeah, I also ain’t calling you Steve.”

“You’ll feel differently when you learn what an ass he is.” Another voice poured into the space and Bucky looked frantically around.

“No one asked you, Tony,” Steve said with a chuckle. “Whaddya want?”

“Brucie Bear and I made the tub continuously filling, so we put it in the courtyard until we can build something he likes better.”

“James,” Steve replied. “His names is James”

“Actually, it’s Bucky,” Bucky offered. “And I don’t need much, honest. Just seaweed and -”

“He’s clan now,” Steve interrupted.

There was silence from Tony for a beat. “Got it, well then my plans are too far from the house. Bucky, I’m sorry in advance for the tub. Get him up here, Capsaicin. Chop chop.”

“And that,” Steve addressed Bucky with a laugh, “is Tony. He’s a wizard - a pretty powerful one - and -”

“Wait, was that Grand Warlock Stark?”

Steve brightened. “Oh, you’ve heard of him? Pepper will be pleased the new title got to HYDRA. Okay, I’m going to carry you in my arms or over my shoulder. Your call.”

Bucky grumbled that being hefted over Steve’s shoulder may be less humiliating, and Steve quickly obliged.

* * *

“I am to call you Bucky?”

Bucky craned his head slightly to peer at the voice. “Yes ma’am. It’s what I go by.”

“It does set you apart,” the woman said with a small smirk.

“I woulda thought the tail did that, but sure,” Bucky replied easily. He was rewarded with a full throated laugh that reminded him of his mother. A pang seared across his chest - he missed them all.

“I’m Agent Margaret Carter, but the clan all calls me Peggy, and so should you.”

Bucky nodded, but even that motion highlighted how pinched his whole body was inside the tub. Grand Warlock Stark must be significantly smaller than him - even sans the tail - if this was his personal tub. Bucky’s tail was the priority of wetness, but he still kept shifting, trying to get his skin damp as well. He was dying to get his head fully underwater again, to feel the flow of water through his hair, to find the calm that came in hearing only the ocean’s rhythms. He loved his human parts - he wasn’t like some other in his home clan that were afraid of humans and tried their best to never go to the Surface. Bucky enjoyed the Surface quite a bit; he loved hiding in plain sight and observing the Surface life.

“Yes, I’m afraid that vessel is not quite suited for our purposes here,” Peggy said with a pinch of her face. “Even magic as strong as Tony’s takes time, however, so I’m afraid you’ll be here for another few moments.”

“Where is here, ma’am?”

“Peggy,” she corrected, “and in terms of nautical areas, we are three miles north of Bermuda.”

“My people are being held off the coast of Savannah, from the human maps I’ve stolen over the years” Bucky reported.

Peggy nodded. “JARVIS?”

“Yes, Agent Carter?”

Bucky wanted to jerk his body about again to try to find the source of the voice, but he was quite stuffed into the porcelain captor.

“Can you please inform Agent Hill that the HYDRA Confederacy is holding captives near Savannah? Mer captives, to be specific. Bucky, how many are you?”

“I’m Brooklynaire MerClan,” Bucky replied, “but we have at least four other clans shoved with us in the restricted area. All told? Probably 600.”

Peggy swore under her breath. “Our intel is quite outdated. How long have you been located there?”

“You mean forcibly transported to a water climate we aren’t comfortable in, that’s causing us all to schluff scales and be miserable? About five years,” Bucky said. He was a strong mix of both anger and grief, and he was sure it came out in his voice. “I’ve been swimming as far as I could, as often as I could, towards what we were told were SHIELD sponsored safe areas, trying to find someone who could help us, but then -”

“Yes, Steven told me about your run-in with our traitor,” Peggy said. “Allow me to clarify some things from our end, Bucky.” Her smile was warm. “First, can I get more water for you? Some over your head, perhaps?”

“Ma’am, if you could pour a few buckets over me, I’d be in heaven,” Bucky confessed.

“Done.” Peggy moved swiftly, and Bucky was soon swallowing mouthfulls of salty water, feeling them give him strength.

“Peggy!”

Just as Peggy put the bucket down, a voice came echoing through the courtyard.

“Have you met Tony?” Peggy asked Bucky.

“No,” Bucky replied, just as the man in question came barreling into the space, holding a glowing orb of power between his hands.

“Pegs, I got it, I can just - oh, merman, you’re here! Perfect, you can… okay… so…”

“Tony, full sentences,” Peggy snapped.

“Right, sorry,” Tony looked slightly sheepish. “Bucky, right? I don’t want to create a permanent habitat for you, since you’re actually my first merfriend and I wanted your input, but I know enough to create a semi-permanent one here in the courtyard. This will connect to the sea, but you’ll still be in our wards and I can’t expand them for more swimming space, I’m sorry, but you can also shift into-”

“I can’t.”

Tony stopped his monologue. “What? All mers can shift.”

“Not when they’ve been captive outside their natural habitat,” Bucky spat. “I lost the power a few years back.”

Tony looked wildly to Peggy, as though she would know the answer to his question. Which, she evidently did, because she quietly responded. “New information, Tony, and we’re acting on it immediately.”

“Fucking hurry up, Pegs,” Tony snapped. “They’re getting more powerful, and we’re-”

“- helping our new clan member become more comfortable quickly, Anthony,” Peggy interrupted.

Tony growled slightly, but turned himself back to Bucky. “This still allows for a shift because my next project is going to be to figure out how to transfer my magic to yours to allow you to do that, what a violation of rights, I hate HYDRA so much, I really do, Pegs. Anyway, I just need to know if you like bubbly seaweed or stringy.”

“Bubbly,” Bucky replied.

Tony moved his fingers along the power orb like he was playing an instrument, and then nodded. “This might smell like shit for a minute.”

He threw the orb over Bucky’s head to the clay wall that had been behind it. All of a sudden, the clay began to melt, and shift, and soon there was a dent in the ground that was filled with water and bubbly seaweed. There was a strong smell of rotten ocean water, the stagnant kind, but then Bucky heard a plug being pulled, and he saw a rush of freshwater flow into the newly constructed pool from an opening in the wall.

Tony collapsed on the ground, and let out a laugh. “JARVIS, tell Bruce I did it, and he owes me pizza.”

“Yes, Sir,” the voice said.

“Okay, I have at least fourteen hundred questions,” Bucky said, once he found his voice again. “But let’s start with Floating Voice.”

Tony laughed, but it was heavy with exhaustion and Bucky wondered just exactly how much magic was required to do what just occurred. “JARVIS is the system that runs the Resistance. We’re not SHIELD, not really, because SHIELD has swiss cheese security, and a history of trusting the wrong people. We just let SHIELD think we’re theirs, and JARVIS runs the difference.”

“Okay, and -”

“All the questions in the world, Triton,” Tony interrupted, “but first I need to know if the pond works. If I help you tip the tub, can you slither or something? Steve’s busy, but -”

“I can slither, but I doubt you can pry me out of the tub. I’m stuffed pretty good.”

Tony murmured something under his breath that sounded like ‘no, but I’d like to help’, but Bucky was sure he heard wrong.

“Anthony, do you have enough left to break the tub?” Peggy asked.

Tony sighed. “I really love that tub. But yes.”

Before Bucky could grasp what was happening, he was on the ground. Getting to the pond wasn't difficult, and he managed it quickly. He did a few summersaults to test the circumference of the area, and was delighted to discover that it was quite a bit larger than it seemed from the surface.

He still had no idea, truly, where he was - a few miles north of Bermuda meant anything from parallel to Philadelphia, to off the coast of Greenland - or if the people he’d found were anything like the rumors about them, but for the first time in years, the water around his tail was right. He could feel his scales regrowing.

When he headed back for the surface to thank Tony, he saw that the courtyard was empty.

“Sir is quite tired, Mr. Bucky,” JARVIS reported. “Agent Carter helped him back to his quarters.”

“Oh.” Bucky was surprised to find himself disappointed. “Well, thank him for me, will ya?”

“Presently,” JARVIS replied, and Bucky went back to luxuriating in the perfect oasis the wizard had created for him.

* * *

He didn’t see Tony for several days after that, but he enjoyed his visits from nearly every other member of the island. Bruce was a healer who had conjured a few ointments and potions to help Bucky’s system get ready for shifting again.

“You never need to,” Bruce explained, “but it’s a creature rights violation that you aren’t able to have the choice.”

“Thank you,” Bucky replied. “It was a big part of my life before HYDRA claimed us, and I’d like to be able to explore this place more than my little hole.”

Bruce laughed. “And we want you to be able to. Now, take this whenever the sun is in the middle of the sky, and immediately swim at least one half mile. I’m assuming your inner calibrations are back now that you’re in temperate water?”

Bucky nodded.

“Great, then I’ll check back in next week.”

He met Morgan, and Peter, and Harley, and Riri, and a host of other children of the resistance. Some were there with their parents, others because they had been orphaned by HYDRA, and others because they consciously left their clans in order to fight HYDRA. Bucky knew the minute Becca knew that was an option, she’d break the jet stream to get here.

He chatted with Peggy - helping her get all the data she needed. He exchanged Brooklyn stories with Steve, as they grew up not far from each other. Steve was just a human, and Bucky was a mer, and so their paths never really crossed, but it turned out they had a lot of the same favorite things about their territory. He met a siren named Nat, angels named Clint and Sam, a griffon shifter named Hope, and others - all essential members of the Resistance.

Tony, however, remained absent.

He told himself it shouldn’t matter - surely Grand Warlock Stark had other things to do than hang out with a decrepit mer.

And yet.

When he closed his eyes at night to enter his REM cycle, his vision danced with chocolate brown eyes he craved to see again.

* * *

“Your arm.”

Bucky looked up two days later and saw Tony approaching his pond.

“You never shuck your food with the left arm. Why?”

Bucky shrugged. “It doesn’t work right. I got into a fight with a few HYDRA sharks. It’s not actually there.”

Tony blinked. “I’m looking right at it.”

Bucky sighed, and then let the glamour dissolve.

Tony gasped. “That is some fucking powerful magic, Fins McGee.”

Bucky snorted, both at the nickname and at Tony’s shock. “I come from a pretty powerful line of mers, Grand Warlock.”

Tony was quiet, but then began to take off his clothing. Bucky had no idea where to look, but soon - clad only in very tiny shorts - Tony was in the water with him. “Can I touch the joint?”

“Sure,” Bucky said with a shrug. “It hasn’t hurt in years.”

The scar tissue itched, though, and Bucky felt bad asking if this part of the sea had the aloe anemones that helped. Tony’s touch, though…

“This part of your skin behaves the same as your scales,” Tony said quietly. “It needs different lubricant than your human skin.”

“They hoped I’d grow another arm,” Bucky said quietly. “Like a -”

“Octomer army,” Tony interrupted. “We heard rumors they were trying hybrids, but… I’m assuming you escaped?”

“I took six of them out with me as I got out,” Bucky said, “but then my whole family was put in even more restrictive lockdown than the rest of our clan.”

Tony was quiet for a moment before he murmured some words Bucky didn’t understand. What he did understand was that his shoulder wasn’t itchy anymore. His eyes met Tony’s. “What was -”

“Bruce isn’t the only healer around here,” Tony said with a smile. “I can’t grow you another fully human arm, but I can’t create something that’ll actually function. Do you want me to?”

“That sounds like a lot of trouble, Grand Warlock-”

“Tony,” Tony interrupted firmly. “We covered this last week when you showed up. Tony.”

The name felt far too intimate on his tongue, but Bucky obeyed anyway. “Tony.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Tony continued. “I’m at a standstill on a few other projects. But I’ll warn you, I’ll need you to do a lot of tests, so I’ll be annoyingly here a lot of the time.”

“I see no problem with that,” Bucky said, and put as much flirtation into the statement as he could. Might as well shoot his shot.

Tony licked his lips. “Then let’s get started.”

* * *

After that, Tony was never quite far from the pond for very long. He took measurements of Bucky’s shoulders, observed any strength in his other arm and its range of motion, and consulted Bucky on what kind of materials were available for construction.

“I can’t quite get flesh - I’ve never created this much humanoid flesh before - but I can get something that looks like scales?” Tony asked one afternoon.

Bucky shook his head. “No, I don’t want it to look like I still have my tail if you and Bruce figure out how to help me shift again.”

“Fair,” Tony commented, and then worried his bottom lip in thought. Bucky took the chance and chased Tony’s teeth with his mouth.

“What was that for?” Tony asked when they parted.

“You were chewing on that lip so hard, I wondered what it tasted like,” Bucky replied, as smooth as he could muster.

“Just a scientific inquiry, then,” Tony commented, but Bucky could see his pupils blown wide.

“Yup.”

“You probably need more data,” Tony said.

“Sure,” Bucky breathed, and captured Tony’s mouth again.

They alternated exploring each other’s bodies with exploring various options to get Bucky out of the pond. Steve and Peggy were all too happy to tease Bucky about it whenever they dropped by, but Bucky was sure it was just a fling. What would Grand Warlock Stark want with a half-functional merman?

Bucky found out the exact answer to that question about two months into his stay on the Island. They’d detected a HYDRA pod close enough to attack and seek hostages, which was always the goal for the Resistance. They needed information, not dead bodies. Steve was leading the raid, with Tony, Nat, Clint, Sam, and Bruce offering support. Bucky assumed the healer was there for medical support, but Sam and Clint had joked about the Brute Squad a few times in relation to Bruce, so Bucky wasn’t actually sure.

The team was leaving at two clicks past the moon’s apex, and Bucky was about to swim out to the edge of the wards to keep watch when Tony appeared at the land side of his habitat.

“James,” Tony said in a low voice. “My magic is low. I over did it on your habitat - I should have waited for Pep and Rhodey, but they’ve been delayed again - and I’ve been using it a lot on your arm, and don’t say that was stupid, or you weren’t worth it, you are worth it, but it means I may come back from this thing a big mangled, and so I may not be able to see you for a bit after while I heal, and I want you to know…”

Tony trailed off, and Bucky drew the sorcerer close to himself. “Doll, what’s going on in that head?”

“I’m coming back to you, I promise, no matter how long it takes.”

Bucky must have looked shocked because Tony quickly started babbling. “Oh, no, man, okay, I blew this one, I told Steve you didn’t… I’m sorry, I always put my foot in my…. Oh, Bucky, I’m so sorry…. I….” He started squirming his way out of Bucky’s embrace.

Bucky blinked a few times. “No, Tony, wait, no.” He shook his head to clear it and then gripped Tony tighter. “It didn’t occur to me you wouldn’t come back. You’re Tony Stark, the most powerful warlock in the Atlantic, maybe the planet, and I never - not for one breath - thought you wouldn’t come back from this. That was my shock, not whatever you were saying.”

“Really?” Tony brightened. “I know mers don’t usually have one mate, and so I was wondering if you were just killing time with me until you got back to yours.”

“My clan always has one mate,” Bucky said, “and I don’t have one yet. Too busy helping guard everything, and… well… I ain’t never met another mer I wanted like that. Turns out I have a thing for humans.”

Tony rolled his lips between his teeth, and then gave Bucky a kiss. “I have a thing for you.”

All of the blood rushed from Bucky’s head at that admission. “Then come back safe.”

* * *

“Bucky.”

Peggy’s voice was tight, and she looked frantic.

“They’re back?”

Peggy nodded. “Tony is… he’s in medical. Steve and Sam were injured as well, but Tony took a direct hit, and will be in recovery for a long time. I don’t know when someone will be able to transport you to see him, but I wanted you to know.”

“Ma’am, there is something you are not telling me,” Bucky said firmly.

Peggy looked down, and then sighed deeply. “A long time could be years.”

Bucky felt like someone had ripped out his stomach through his tail. “Years?”

“His power was sucked from him, we think, by this new weapon they have, and it could take a long time for his energy source to replenish,” Peggy said. “I just wanted you to be prepared.”

She left as quietly as she came, and Bucky couldn’t move for a long time. He was sure he should be concerned for his arm and the progress on it, or concerned for how Tony kept everyone else safe, or what would happen to the wards now, but all Bucky could feel was a gnawing hole in his being at the idea of not being able to see Tony right that minute.

Which he should be able to, if HYDRA hadn’t ripped him of his ability to shift.

He could feel the beginnings of the healing there - he knew that he’d be able to shift fully again soon, but that if he did it now, his legs would be under-developed. To shift the power his tail contained into human legs took more magic than he had within him.

But fuck if he wasn’t going to try. At least if his legs were weak, dragging them behind him as he crawled the mile or so to where he thought medical was wouldn’t be as taxing as trying to drag his tail.

He did five or so laps around the entire exterior of his habitat, trying to gain the momentum he knew this would take. When he felt the power coursing through his tail, he catapulted himself towards the surface, and screamed the ancient incantation it took to transform.

He landed in a heap on the shore - entirely human and entirely exhausted.

“Mer Barnes, should I call for assistance?” JARVIS’ tone of concern was not lost on Bucky.

“Everyone’s got more important things to deal with,” Bucky replied. “Could you just guide me to Tony?”

“Of course,” JARVIS replied. Bucky began the long crawl. He had to stop along the way twelve times to catch his breath, and JARVIS asked each time if he needed assistance. He was close to saying ‘yes’ once he left the sandy part of the island and got into the rocky one - he was sure he was cut to hell as he dragged his useless legs behind him - but he could handle himself. He didn’t need anyone taking time away from the injured - from Tony - to help him.

Finally, the medical building was in sight. He nearly cried when he caught sight of it, and used everything left in him to increase his pace. Sam happened to be exiting just as Bucky crawled close, and let out a yell.

“BUCKY. WHAT THE HELL, MAN?”

“Tony,” Bucky heaved out on a breath, “get me to Tony.”

“Are those legs? How are you here? What can -”

“Sam. Get me to Tony.”

Hearing the labor in Bucky’s words must have snapped Sam to attention, because the angel quickly had Bucky in his arms. He wove the pair through the hallways, and Bucky could see other familiar faces as they went. A few people called out to Sam to ask what was happening, but Bucky was gratified that Sam ignored them all. Finally, he was placed in a wheeled chair.

“The energy in Tony’s room is kept at a very specific level,” Sam reported, “so if you’ve got anything extra still humming in you from however the hell you did what you did, then you gotta stay at the window.”

Bucky chuckled. “This is actually normal for me, before HYDRA. I shifted all the time - we’re a land & sea clan, my mers. But don’t worry, I used up everything in me to get to this point. I just…” Bucky trailed off for a second, but knew Sam would understand. “I just had to make sure he wasn’t alone.”

Sam nodded solemnly. “Let us know if you need anything.”

Bucky smiled his thanks and then rolled himself next to Tony’s bed. The sorcerer looked completely normal, but Bucky could tell something was off. The energy that normally flowed through Tony was missing - that hum that made everything around him more alive was dormant.

“Tony,” Bucky said in a low whisper, “I have no idea if you can hear me. Your magic is different from mine, I know, but when Ma was knocked out with Becca’s litter, she said she could still hear me talking to her, so I’m taking the risk.

“I never felt terror like I did the minute Peggy said you might be like this for a while,” Bucky continued. “I need you to pull through this, because I know I said I never wanted to mate, but now I do. I have for a while, I have since I met you, I… Come back to me, Tony. Come back.”

* * *

“What the hell are you doing here?”

The question was croaked from the bed three weeks later. Bucky lost his breath for a minute.

“Keeping you company,” Bucky replied.

“There’s no tank,” Tony said. “How are you here when there’s no tank? Barnes, what-”

His voice was gaining strength, but also panic, and Bucky knew he had to intervene quickly. He climbed onto the bed and Tony stopped talking at the sight of Bucky’s legs.

“Bucky,” Tony said slowly, “am I on some sort of human drug? What about a spell? What is… How do you have legs?”

“I always had ‘em, doll,” Bucky said with a sly grin. “I just couldn’t quite access ‘em for a while. Turns out that when I really needed to ditch the tail, I found a way.”

“Why did you really need to?”

“You were here. Not being here with you was unacceptable,” Bucky said simply.

“I’m hallucinating,” Tony said after a few minutes. “I’m -”

“No, you’re not,” Bucky said. “You woke up for a few minutes two days ago and we had this conversation then. You were up longer yesterday, and we went over it then, too. Your brain is still healing so I’m not surprised you need a little bit.”

Tony looked slightly panicked, so Bucky placed his hand over Tony’s heart. “Breathe with me, Tony. In, out, in out… there you go. HYDRA has a new weapon that drains magic to store it somewhere else. You got caught in it, and Steve and Bruce reckon that your magic was drained to where it was when you were a kid. They got you back here as fast as they could, and Bruce and some guy named, very appropriately, Strange, have been working on a whole bunch of shit to get you back to adult magic levels.”

“How long?”

“You’ve been out for about three weeks,” Bucky said. “Running theory was that it might have taken a lot longer, but between your magic, and something Bruce and Strange cooked up, it was only about three weeks. We kept you fed and watered, and Clint rigged up your bed to a boat motor so we could vibrate it a bit to keep your body moving. Some minor muscle loss, but no bed sores, and nothing else that time can’t fix.”

“But three weeks… HYDRA…”

“Peggy’s on it. Right now, Tony, your job is to rest.”

Tony’s pursed his lips. “If the machine sucks magic, then they’re using the thermonuclear properties that Doom’s been playing with, and that’s... Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Can we go back to how you shifted?”

“Sure,” Bucky said, trying to hide his grin.

“You said not being here with me was unacceptable.”

“Yes.”

Tony tilted his head slightly to one side. “Why?”

“Turns out, I love you.”

Tony blinked a few times. “Come again?”

Bucky shrugged, as though the statement he was making was the most natural thing in the world - because it was. “I’ll repeat. Turns out, I love you. The idea of you being alone made me… no, Tony, you’ll never be alone again. Not on my watch.”

Tony was quiet for a long time, and Bucky started to get nervous. He was about to start filling the silence with words, when Tony spoke.

“When I’ve been working on your arm, I’ve also been working on artificial shifter magic.”

Bucky felt his brow furrow automatically. “What does that mean?”

“Turns out,” Tony said, with a twinkle in his eye, “I love you too, and the idea of you going places I couldn’t… I don’t think you should be alone ever again, either.”

Bucky leaned forward and kissed Tony. “There’s mating rituals…”

“Let’s wait until we can do the human ones and the mer ones, eh?”

With that statement, Tony’s eyes began to flutter closed, and Bucky stretched out in the bed next to him. Bruce or Strange were sure to yell at him - they had yesterday - but they’d have to pry him off of Tony with something a lot stronger than they were.

Mate.

A word he never thought he would ever use.

Now he not only was using it, but it had an identity attached to it. A man who wanted them to be together in all the ways they could, be part of each other’s worlds in all the possible ways. He wanted to swim with Bucky’s clan, and Bucky knew that if Tony had been working on the shifter magic, it wasn’t just for love - Tony wanted to help in the sea battles as well as the land and air ones.

A levitating warlock, who could also shift into a sea creature.

HYDRA was fucked.

Bucky was saved.

And surely they would all live happily ever after.

* * *

Spoiler Alert: They did.

It took Tony three more months to perfect the shifting magic - there were an awkward few days he spent as an octopus that Steve would never let him live down - but once he did, the entire war turned. To have an insanely powerful warlock on land, who had expanded his powers years before to the air, now also gain the ability to shift into a mer? As Clint said eloquently, “Game over motherfuckers.”

He and Bucky quietly performed all the appropriate bonding rituals, and promised grand celebrations once Bucky’s family was freed from HYDRA. It was a pretty fantastic moment when Tony found Becca and Winnie before Bucky could during the Savannah raid.

“Winnie and Becca Barnes?”

“Who’s asking?”

Tony bit the inside of his lip. Bucky had described Becca personally.

“I am Grand Warlock Stark, Master of the Wire Realm, Transporter of the Nanites, Guardian of the Old Magic, and your brother-in-law.”

Both women had been slightly rolling their eyes at his titles until he got to the last one.

“You’re my what?” Winnie swam slightly closer, and reached to touch Tony’s face. She stopped herself, and Tony smiled.

“Bucky got caught up in the wards I put around the island the Resistance has been hiding on for the past two years. We fell in love, bonded, and now we’re all here to bring you back to the island so you can help us plot the complete overthrow of HYDRA. I know I’m skipping a bunch of steps here, but Buck’s gonna be pissed I got to you first anyway, so can we get out of here?”

With the members of the Brooklynaire clan safely ensconced in the wards around the island, Tony was able to rest and build his magic. He called a Grand Meeting of Interdimensional Warlocks - which turned out to be more about people not stepping on other people’s robes than Bucky was expecting - and shared the shifter magic with them. With their help, the Resistance added nearly 5,000 shifters to their ranks, and the downfall of HYDRA was imminent.

The final battle was both rambunctious and quiet. Peggy and Steve found their leader hiding in a bunker, and quietly bound him with the magic lasso they’d borrowed from the Themysciras. After several full confessions and an unbelievable amount of conspiracy theories, they had all they needed to bring him before the Human/Species High Council that controlled the prosecution of war crimes on Earth.

Eradicating the theories and beliefs that allowed HYDRA to gain the power it did took a lot longer - but it was a fight that Tony and Bucky were proud to dedicate the rest of their exceptionally long lives to.

In the four hundred and seventy-two years they had together, they had five children (all daughters to their delight and horror), fourteen grandchildren, forty-two great-grandchildren, and that’s when they stopped counting. They celebrated their friends’ mating ceremonies, presided over the dedications of so many creature offsprings, taught shifter magic to anyone who wanted to learn, traveled the world and eventually the universe, and a host of other adventures that filled the pages of the biographies written about the Grand Warlock and the ordinary merman who found love in a hopeless place.

Tony hated that line - he’d protest loudly there was nothing ordinary about Bucky - and Bucky would simply smirk and reply that most people were idiots. Tony would rant, and rave, and Bucky would kiss him to shut him up, or shove a spoonful of his latest cooking creation into Tony’s mouth.

So yes, Reader, they did live happily ever after, rest assured of that.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked the story, I'd love to know! Kudos and comments are life giving. If you're not sure what to say in the comment, know that I take keyboard smashes and emojis as full love. So, if you liked it more than just a kudos, dropping a heart emoji is great and I thank you in advance.
> 
> Find me on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/betheflame1) or [Tumblr](http://betheflame.tumblr.com) for more on these yahoos. You can also submit prompts and cajole me into writing faster - it usually works. If you're on Discord, I'm definitely there, too, and probably hanging in the [Put on the Suit Stony Server ](https://discord.gg/z5WSqbS) or the [STB Enthusiasts Stuckony](https://discord.gg/ktXHUb4) one.  
>   
> Oh! And FestiveFerret and I have a [fandom podcast](http://www.podonthesuit.com) if you're so inclined.  
>   
> 


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